An acclaimed nature writer and environmentalist delivers an eloquent and provocative pro-hunting exploration of the primal impulse to hunt and its endangered value in modern society.

WHAT THE EXPERTS ARE SAYING

"Swan eloquently defends hunting on moral, ecological, and historical grounds. This is a thoughtful, reasonable book that will reinforce some opinions already held and, more importantly, prod those with no stance to investigate further." ----Booklist

"Hunters whould be proud of themselves. In fact, it's a must. Environmental psychologist James A. Swan's message comes through eloquently in a thought-provoking book."

-- Ed Dentry, syndicated outdoors columnist,
Rocky Mountain News

The finest blueprint for a sport embattled by the antihunting movement...thoughtfully crafted....a must read."
-- Charlie Meyers, outdoors columnist, Denver Post

"Destroys the anti-hunting arguments!" --Montreal Gazette

"An eloquent and entertaining blend of stories, science and common sense probing the heart and soul of hunting and its opponents...a distinctly poignant and personal analysis of the essential role of hunting in the delicate balance of life..."

--- Chuck Petrie, Editor, Ducks Unlimited

"Contains the best information on the importance and value of hunting today that I have ever read. This is MUST reading for all hunters and non-hunters."
---Bowhunter

"Drawing on solid credentials,...Swan argues that understanding why people hunt involves understanding humankind's fundamental nature."
--Library Journal

Shatzko has had his share excitement while hunting. The following is a passage in his book on his polar bear hunt in the Arctic when the ice floe he was camped on broke loose. "In the morning, with the last wisps of the windstorm dying, Frankie got out of the tent first. 'You guys need to come see this.' There was certain urgency in his voice that had all of us scrambling out of the tent. At first, I didn't comprehend what I was seeing. The hump of land that had been a mile away last night looked as if it was more like ten miles away this morning. We all walked out toward what used be the pressure ridge. We were looking at open water. The ice, eight feet thick, had broken cleanly away. We stood on a shear ice cliff, staring at the raging Arctic water eight feet below. Our camp had broken away and had become a makeshift boat. It was being smashed with all the ocean's considerable fury. Below us certain death waited patiently. . . ."

Since 1937 Alaska magazine has charted the development of our biggest, most mysterious state. With compelling stories on such events as earthquakes, tidal waves, grizzly and polar bear attacks, the Russian influence, the Gold Rush, the Japanese invasion of the Aleutians during World War II, hunting and fishing, the lives of sourdoughs, Inuit life, and much more, The Last Frontier truly captures the essence of our largest state.

Other chapters include the tale of the Inuit commercial pilot, flying villagers across the Arctic. Or the one about the family of nine who left Richmond, Virginia, in 1938 on a home-built ark, sailed it to Alaska, and built a homestead outside of Juneau. Or the one about the family who placed their Model T Ford on a raft, hooked paddle wheels to the axles, and steered their home-built paddle wheeler down the Yukon River to the first road—whereupon they removed the car from the barge, and drove to Kansas.

Other stories include
* Susan Butcher’s record-breaking ascent of Denali . . . by dogsled
* The mystery of Klutuk, the beast of the tundra
* Golfing with bears in Kodiak
* The trials of a nurse running a hospital on an ice pack in 1921
* Tips on hunting musk oxen on the Yukon
* Newsworthy events such as the Exxon Valdez disaster and the debate about opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

A SHEEP HUNTER'S DIARY

Thirty Years of Mountain Hunting for Ibex and Sheep

by Dr. Ronald S. Gabriel

2014 Long Beach, 413pp, drawings by Gordon Allen and color photos, profuse maps.

Safari Press prides itself on its sheep hunting publications. Not because we have published so many titles on the subject-we have not-but because the books we have published on sheep hunting have been the summa cum laude of the genre. We have published one only every four or five years, but when we do they are the absolute summit of adventure from the pinnacles of the world. Ron Gabriel's book is only the sixth book in our "Hunting in High Altitude Series," and that is in twenty-five years of publishing! Gabriel is in ultra rare company, for he is one of only a few dozen people who has taken a Super Slam of sheep. While doing so, this very selective hunter has shot some fantastic heads. These include such trophies as the No. 2 blue sheep, a 60-inch Altai argali, a 60-inch Marco Polo, a 180-point-plus desert sheep, and a No. 2 West Caucasian tur. This man is no amateur hunter! You will find very little in the form of measurements and boasting in this book, but rather you will discover a wonderful, dense narrative of interesting events that will take you from the top of the Himalayas to the bottom of a Baja California canyon (almost at sea level). This book stands in lavish counterpoint to his adventurous exploits. Ron Gabriel has done the most to illustrate his experiences by commissioning Gordon Allen, a famous outdoor artist, to make specific drawings for each chapter of this book. These illustrations are so evocative of the setting and animals that the reader is completely drawn into the tale. Combined with his wonderful color photos and superb narrative, this is one very fine sheep-hunting tome. His adventures are juxtaposed against those of earlier explorers such a Demidoff, Dunmore, Cobbold, Cumberland, and Sheldon. Gabriel does an admirable job of describing how these famous hunters fared in their own hunting over a century ago on the same grounds. Material for a superlative sheep-hunting book like this is not the result of experiences over ten or not even over twenty years, but rather must come from a lifetime of hunting on the mountains of the world. The individual must be extraordinarily dedicated and focused-a hunter who forgoes all other more normal, "lesser" game animals in order to achieve his hunting goals. And that is why we only publish a book on the subject a few times each decade. The individuals who can accomplish what Ron Gabriel has done are few and far between, and there simply are not many manuscripts worthy to be included in our lineup.

Thirty hunters. Thirty record-book trophy game animals—most of them taken on public lands. Thirty epic tales to share back at hunting camp. These are the real-world stories behind some of the top-scoring trophies recognized by the Boone and Crockett Club, North America’s premier wildlife conservation organization. Traverse the deep backcountry in pursuit of North America’s wildest, wiliest big game animals—including cougar, caribou, mule deer, elk, bighorn sheep and more.

FROM THE HIMALAYAS TO THE ROCKIES

Retracing the Great Arc of Wild Sheep

by Dr. R. Mitchell & Dr. M.Frisina

2005 Long Beach, 230pp, color and B&W photos, hardcover,

From the small urial sheep of the Middle East to the mighty 60-plus-inch argali to the majestic Rocky Mountain ram, it is fair to say that no other class of animal evokes such great passions in hunters as do the wild sheep of the world. The authors of this book have established a definitive classification for every species and subspecies of sheep, which is the first time in more than forty years anyone has attempted to do so. In the process they lay out a systematic approach for classifying both New and the Old World sheep. They provide detailed distribution maps and color photos to enhance the descriptions, which help make this the best overview to date on the wild sheep of the world. For purposes of completeness, blue sheep, Barbary sheep, and tur have been included, even though they are not true sheep. There is also a section of hunting stories by famous sheep hunters such as Jack Atcheson Sr. and Jr., Soudy Golabchi, Robert Logan, Hubert Thummler, Dennis Campbell, Henry van den Broecke, Margaret Frisina, Duncan Gilchrist, and so on. Both Drs. Mike Frisina and Richard Mitchell have spent countless days in the field studying and observing sheep in areas as diverse as Pakistan, central Asia, Mongolia, Alaska, and the western United States. The authors reclassify many sheep, which is sure to be controversial to some, and they offer a fresh approach to a subject matter that endlessly fascinates hunters.

JOURNALS OF ANDREW J. STONE

Expeditions to Arctic and Subarctic America after Wild Sheep, Grizzly, Caribou, and Muskoxen 1896-1903.

by R Margaret Frisina. 428pp.

New York City was abuzz on 3 April 1903; Andrew J. Stone, world-renowned Arctic explorer and hunter-naturalist, was fêted with a dinner/reception at the American Museum of Natural History. The East Mammal Hall was festooned with many specimens obtained by Stone on his three major expeditions into British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and Alaska. While Stone was widely known and highly acclaimed in his time—one of the original members of the New York Explorers Club and tapped to make an expedition to the North Pole via the Northwest Passage—within a few years his amazing legacy faded into the shadows as the world’s attention was consumed by international conflict.

During the course of his hunts, he shot a Grand Slam and a Super Slam of Sheep and the Big Five as well as all the spiral-horned antelope of Africa. His busiest year was 1988, when he made thirteen major hunts! One of his most grueling hunts was for a desert bighorn in Baja California, which completed his Grand Slam. When he went on safari to Ethiopia, he passed up a 75-pound elephant before taking a 110 x 115-pound tusker on the tenth day of the hunt; then he continued in that country to take a mountain nyala. After Ethiopia, he successfully hunted caribou in the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, and Quebec; a whitetail in Alberta; Columbia blacktails and brown bears on Alaska's Kodiak Island; and Coues deer in Mexico . . . all in the same year!

Fifty years ago, Latham Myers learned to hunt with his grandpa. Then it was for rabbits and squirrels; today he scales the highest peaks in the world in the toughest of big-game hunts. It was his grandpa who taught him how and why we hunt, and it was this same mentor who instilled in him a love of hunting that grew into one of his greatest passions, hunting wild sheep and goats on the pinnacles of the world.

What do you get when you pair the world's foremost bibliographer of English language hunting books with one of the world's leading experts on mountain game? One darn good bibliography . . . which is exactly what Ken Czech and Raul Valdez have produced with this volume.

Ovis means sheep and ammon is a derivative of the word Amun, the ancient god of Egypt who is depicted with the large horns of a ram. Just as the gods of Egypt loomed larger than life, so do the mighty sheep of Central Asia. To the modern-day hunter, these sheep have attained almost mystical status . . . and for good reason. The longest Marco Polo horn on record—75 inches—is longer than any other horn or antler ever recorded.

Robert Anderson knows his sheep and Caprinae and has spent a lifetime gathering modern and historic photos and stories about the world's most coveted game animals. (He, himself, is also a hunter of mountain game.) In this, his second book on Asian mountain game, he has pulled out all stops: The book is filled to the rim with contemporary photos of great argali, urial, mouflon, blue sheep, markhor, tur, and ibex that will make every mountain-game hunter worldwide get an elevated heart rate! Also included are great modern and historical stories about unbelievable hunts that will be the envy of every sheep hunter alive. Complementing these stories are two detailed historical chapters on Marco Polo sheep hunting that sets conventional thinking on its head. It turns out that immediately after World War II several individuals managed to penetrate the Pamirs in search of fabled Marco Polo rams, even though most think that Asian hunting wasn't opened until decades later.

Avid sheep hunters and conservationists have long anticipated the next book in the franchise series Great Rams by Robert Anderson. The latest installment honors the traditional format of its predecessors, and, again, the book features high-quality production, paper, and printing. The content is classic Great Rams fodder: stories of legendary sheep hunts and hunters, colorful photographs, features on historic trophy areas and conservation efforts, and a look at yesterday's-and today's-sheep hunter.

Limited Edition, Slipcased.

ANOTHER RIFLE, ANOTHER LAND

by Dr. J. Y. Jones

J. Y. Jones’s first book, One Man, One Rifle, One Land, was a book of note, and the fact that we have reprinted it three times is a sure sign of success in book publishing. Now in his follow-up book (his thirteenth book), he ventures beyond North America to hunt the big game of Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific. And no, there is no African hunting. Yet the variety of game being hunted is enormous, and this is a fact that few people realize—Asia rivals Africa in numbers of species of game animals.